1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to a distributed control method and an apparatus using a uniform resource locator (URL) in a distributed network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the growth of Internet technologies, consumer electronic (CE) devices are merging with rapidly developing Internet technologies, and thus a server/client network is becoming a complex network of devices over time.
When the number of CE devices continuously increases, and thus there are a plurality of CE devices providing the same service, a load is concentrated in a centralized server managing the CE devices thereby increasing expenses for maintaining and managing the centralized server.
Moreover, in Internet-based CE devices, services corresponding to characteristics of each product, such as firmware upgrade or various application upgrades, are increasingly being used.
In a network environment including a centralized server and a plurality of clients, the centralized server manages all the clients, where each client transmits its own product characteristic information to the centralized server via a certain interface, and the centralized server returns control information according to each characteristic by logic-processing the product characteristic information. For example, when a device transmits an identifier (ID), a model name, firmware version information, and various tokens, which are product characteristic information, to the centralized server, the centralized server analyzes the product characteristic information, searches for control data applicable to the device in a database of the centralized server, and returns the control data to the device. The device is operated by downloading the control data from the centralized server, and changes its own status, such as upgrading a firmware version.
In other words, when the device periodically transmits a query to the centralized server, logic of the centralized server transmits a control command message to the device via version check, pre-scheduling, and policy control. Moreover, when the device transmits a message for requesting to download various contents from the centralized server, the centralized server transmits a binary image of data corresponding to the request via throttle control, wherein the data in the binary image is encoded.